Help!! Fighting!!

Polly and Tallulah had a massive fight the other day, they always squabble but this was full on and I couldn't separate them.
It was over food, it was awful they were both bleeding I bathed them both as they were covered in all sorts, fortunately the wounds were more scuffs than deep bites so I cleaned and disinfected the areas effected. They seem fine now but I'm scared of leaving them alone together.
Im just unsure what I should do next. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

How old are they both now? Keeping two bitches is often a bit dicey - do you know who started it?

At least for a while I would make sure that they are well supervised & not left alone together.

I would also keep them seperated when you aren't there to supervise.

you should always be cautious about leaving them alone together for any length of time . Does polly go in a crate ??

At the moment with us they both wander freely whilst we are at home , sleep together or separate as they feel but when we go out Tommy is in the kitchen with the door closed and Tilly has the rest of the house as we can trust her to be ok.
They have had "full on fights" resulting in a couple of teeth marks in Tommy but this is part of the building the hierarchy routine or at least for our 2 and I have no concerns about it. If they are scrappring all the time is more cause for concern.

Caryll wrote:How old are they both now? Keeping two bitches is often a bit dicey - do you know who started it?

At least for a while I would make sure that they are well supervised & not left alone together.

Tallulah is a 3 yr old shih tzu and Polly is 19/20 weeks old.

It was Tallulah who started it because Polly went near her food.

Dave wrote:you should always be cautious about leaving them alone together for any length of time . Does polly go in a crate ??

At the moment with us they both wander freely whilst we are at home , sleep together or separate as they feel but when we go out Tommy is in the kitchen with the door closed and Tilly has the rest of the house as we can trust her to be ok.
They have had "full on fights" resulting in a couple of teeth marks in Tommy but this is part of the building the hierarchy routine or at least for our 2 and I have no concerns about it. If they are scrappring all the time is more cause for concern.

Polly is crated at night time, but this happened when they were outside in the back garden

I'd suggest feeding in separate rooms - and keep whoever finishes first away from the other - neither dog should feel the need to bolt its food.

And no toys or other triggers left out when you go out.

This is horrible for you because its like being on a knife edge, I had it happen with two bitches, mother and daughter. Unfortunately it escalated into complete hatred, we tried keeping them separate but just couldnt do it with five kids around, in the end we had to rehome the daughter. I would say try and avoid letting them have food together, if toys become an issue, you will have to play seperately with them. Any signs of aggression try to assert yourself so that they are aware that you are the pack leader above them. I handled the situation completely wrongly by going into panic mode and not asserting myself, your pup probably tried to get a bit cheeky around the food and your older dog tried to teach it some manners, no panic at the moment but stay on top of it. Hope it goes well!!

Working dog wrote:I'd suggest feeding in separate rooms - and keep whoever finishes first away from the other - neither dog should feel the need to bolt its food.

And no toys or other triggers left out when you go out.

Definitely.

When you have two dogs you should always make sure that they don't try to take each other's food! It'll always end in tears.

miss_yell wrote:

Dave wrote:you should always be cautious about leaving them alone together for any length of time . Does polly go in a crate ??

At the moment with us they both wander freely whilst we are at home , sleep together or separate as they feel but when we go out Tommy is in the kitchen with the door closed and Tilly has the rest of the house as we can trust her to be ok.
They have had "full on fights" resulting in a couple of teeth marks in Tommy but this is part of the building the hierarchy routine or at least for our 2 and I have no concerns about it. If they are scrappring all the time is more cause for concern.

Polly is crated at night time, but this happened when they were outside in the back garden

The Garden is where we have had our incidents too but we do let them work it out between them as they are 2 tough dogs , obviously we wouldnt let them rip each other to shreds and I wouldn't consider leaving them in the garden whilst we go out but feel we can't be too soft with them so they learn their boundaries. As I've said it's only been 2 occasions. Think you just have to watch them more as you don't have 2 well matched breeds and keep an eye on the food thing and follow the advice of others already given. Maybe let them have seperate play time in the garden and supervised playtime together just so you can assess them

Thank you so much everyone, I will be following the advice given and I will keep you updated.
I really hope its just the food thats making them argue, I love them both so much.

Even dogs living together harmoniously in a rescue kennel can argue when it comes to food - I always feed dogs separately - no exceptions.

I've had the same problem - My older dog Bull has put Henry in the vets twice for fight wounds. Henry has always been the instigator - just being the young adolescent pushing boundries with the older dog and being a downright pest until he has got a reaction. Its frightening when it happens, but its natural for dogs to sort out their peeking order, and scuffles will happen over food even with the most well trained dogs.

Just make sure you are at the top of the peeking order, and never trust them unsupervised with food or edible chews. I feed all my dogs in the same room close to each other, but with mesh crates seperating them all. They have to sit and wait while I dish up their food, then arent allowed to start eating it till I tell them to which enforces that I am the one thats the boss. Also, if one so much as growls at another I can tell them to cut it out, but if a fight did try to occur they can't get each other! You could try doing the same sort of set up at feeding time? But be careful to make sure they arent food aggressive with you.

Hopefully things should settle down as time goes on, but again I wouldnt ever trust them alone with food. Good Luck.

Tallulah has bit me a couple of times regarding food, I dont trust her if she was a bigger she would be classed as dangerous, she see's a dog pshycologist (cant spell it lol) and she came to the conclusion that her breeders set her up to fail as they carried her about everywhere as they were going to keep her.
And because I didnt do that when she came to live with me its made her insecure.
If started the separate feeding and fed Polly in the cage but it was Polly who was being aggressive when Tallulah was on the other side of the room. But Polly isnt food aggressive with me like Tallulah is.

miss_yell wrote:Tallulah has bit me a couple of times regarding food, I dont trust her if she was a bigger she would be classed as dangerous, she see's a dog pshycologist (cant spell it lol) and she came to the conclusion that her breeders set her up to fail as they carried her about everywhere as they were going to keep her.
And because I didnt do that when she came to live with me its made her insecure.
If started the separate feeding and fed Polly in the cage but it was Polly who was being aggressive when Tallulah was on the other side of the room. But Polly isnt food aggressive with me like Tallulah is.

How do you mean when you say "regarding food"

Sorry I mean shes growled and gone for me when Ive touch her bowl while she was eating.

my girls play fight and sometimes it gets personal. The noise is blood curdling and they both have permanent bite marks! The age gap with your girls is a lot bigger than mine. I wouldn't worry too much, its just like when a new baby is brought in and the older child plays up and can be nasty about the baby. I wouldn't leave them alone together for now. just as I type Lola is hanging off Lily's ear!

miss_yell wrote:Sorry I mean shes growled and gone for me when Ive touch her bowl while she was eating.

A large proportion of dogs do this. I had a collie cross that did this - needed a lot of work to get him to stop.

As I see it, you have two choices.

Choice 1) use the fact that as humans we are empowered to think ahead, and realise that an event with consequences will unfold if you go to disturb your dog while eating. In other words, leave the dog to its own devices while eating - why poke a wasp's nest with a stick to see if you will get stung? You already know the answer.

Choice 2) the long road toward desensitizing your dog to the trigger of another being getting near its food. This involves adding food to the bowl when you pass - so the dog begins to associate human near food with extra food. However, it's also a good way to get bitten if you can't read the boundary signs.

my two have never had a fight over anything which is good going being both boys.

I however always supervise them eating although they are happy to share just in case.

My 2 are fed in the kitchen but opposite ends! and I always supervise, I have a friend who's 2 dogs got in a fight over food which ended in him being badly bitten trying to separate them.
It's just not worth the risk IMO.

My boys get fed with a gate between them and under supervision. Flynn in the kitchen, Rolo in the hallway. Rolo is a complete foodie... he wouldn't think twice about stealing Flynns dinner. Good luck, and hope the wounds heal quick

Ive started the separate feeding and fed Polly in the cage but it was Polly who was being aggressive when Tallulah was on the other side of the room. At least they cant get to each other...

only reason I have to separate our 2 for food is because if I dont Tommy will eat everything and Tilly will sit back and let him , however if 1 of them has a stick thats when the trouble is likely to start

You could definately try working with Polly and Tallulah to not be food aggressive with you. I would definately recommend getting the help of a trainer though - if you make one mistake and misread their behaviour you will end up getting bitten.

My girl Zoe was quite food aggressive when I got her - she came from the pound, had been mistreated and was in a sorry state so not suprizingly she was very protective of her food. You just need to program it into them that food comes from you, and you approaching means even more and tastier food.

I used to drop just one small handful of biscuits into Zoe's bowl and walk away. Then when she had finished I would approach and drop in another handful then back off again and so on. Its a slow process but it teaches them that the food comes from YOU and your approach means MORE FOOD. Eventually I progressed to feeding all her biscuits in the bowl, then walking past as she was eating and throwing peices of chicken or bacon (basically something nicer than the biscuits) in her bowl as I walked past. Eventually she progressed to stopping eating from the bowl and was waiting for the chicken or bacon from me - and then very slowly I got to the point where I could place my hand in the bowl with her not being bothered about it as she just expected more food from me! Its a slow process but it can work - but again I would get help from a professional trainer.

Good luck - in the mean time I guess the seperated feeding is your best bet. Once they get used to that routine hopefully they will settle down abit and at least if not they can't get to each other.

i have a similar problem but with toys, zepp (the daddy) does not like to share toys with bandit to the point where he has bitten him in the face and made him bleed, could this be because bandit is only young and doesnt understand or is zepp that needs some further training? thankfully, although they are fed seperately, if bandit goes near zepps food zepp will just walk away

i have a similar problem but with toys, zepp (the daddy) does not like to share toys with bandit to the point where he has bitten him in the face and made him bleed, could this be because bandit is only young and doesnt understand or is zepp that needs some further training

I wouldnt worry too much for now, as long as both are fine with people near their toys. Since Bandit is just a pup I would say Zepp is just teaching him the bounderies - I'm sure Zepp would have growled as a warning first and then when Bandit has ignored that warning he has payed the consequence of being bitten. I'm sure they will work it out in time.

When I got my staffy pup Henry I had the same problem with him and my older male dog Bull. Henry couldnt go too close let alone try to take a toy off Bull when he had one - if he did he would get bitten. They've had several minor scraps over toys - but now that Henry is older we havent had any problems. If he wants to play he knows not to take anything off Bull and will go and play with one of the other dogs instead.

Dogs are funny creatures at times - Bull wont let Henry have his toys but if Coal wants them he gives them up. Coal is fine with Henry, Hunter and Zoe sharing though just not Bull. Henry and Zoe couldnt care a less they are happy to share toys with everyone. As for Hunter it depends what mood he is in - if wants to play tug-of-war with the others he will but if not he will guard his toys against the other dogs so they leave him alone.

thats good to know, we are trying to teach bandit to stop biting zepp and everything else so hopefully once that has sunk in they will play better together. he does seem to be learning things quickly so fingers crossed (if i have any left!!) it will stop soon